Thanks to the many Facebook (FB) pages that are regularly updated, Mangaloreans all over the world stay connected and rooted.

Among many pages, World Tuluvas Network (WTN) tops the list with 58,250 likes. Its admin, Samarth Rai, an engineering student, said, “I started it to pass my time. Today, it’s a big tree. It also inspired him to organise Cutest Kid Contest (2011) and Miss and Mr. Mangalore in 2012 and 2013.

“We have stood for social causes too. When someone was in need of blood urgently, we posted it on the page. It helped, says Mr. Rai, with lot of contentment. A picture of black Labrador found at Bondel helped its owner to get it back. The owner was so happy. And the moment gave us lot of satisfaction,” he says. It also attempted to create awareness about endosulfan victims.

Love for photography and festivals motivated Amith Devadiga, an IT employee, to come up with a page called ‘Festivals in Mangalore’. “I had a habit of visiting festival places and clicking pictures. FB page helped me to connect with people with same interest. Dasara in Mangalore kept us on the move,” Mr. Degadiga recalls.

Pictures are quite a fad on FB. Photos of jackfruit flesh and raw mango slices with chilly powder received more than 25,000 likes each in different Facebook pages of Mangalore.

Waseem R., the admin of ‘Mangalore Meri Jaan’, which has 28,600 fans, says, “As the page was instant hit, many commercial outlets sent ads – asking to post on the page. I did not entertain them. I want to stand for social causes,” he says. Dharmendra Shetty manages two pages — ‘Proud to be a Mangalorean’ (22,000 likes) and ‘Bunt’s Rule’ (20,000 likes) — from Al-Manamah, Bahrain. He says, “I have to spend at least three hours a day on FB.” Admin of ‘Mangalore Kudla’, Gunapala Alva, says, “When I was a student, the page received a good response. Now, it’s hard to manage the page because of my job”.

Sujan Rao, administrator of ‘Island Cricket’, has a different story to tell. He is the first person to come up with a Facebook page for Mangalore which crossed 60,000 likes then. “But, I broke down when my page was hacked in September, 2012,” he says. A diehard cricket fan, Mr. Rao created a page – Sri Lankan cricketer Angelo Mathews – which has 137,186 likes, and another page – Indian Cricket – got 58,000 likes. Even these were hacked.